The Game That Shaped Me
By: Dakota Breuker
Baseball has been a part of my life for the last thirteen years and has significantly impacted who I am. Throughout my time playing on the diamond, I have had many different experiences and challenges. At the same time, baseball has taught me how to deal with those challenges and how to grow from my mistakes.
Playing baseball, you go through many challenges, whether being in a slump and not being able to hit the ball or for me, not having great command as a pitcher. These challenges have taught me that you have to stay neutral and never give up.
There will be times when you are frustrated and feel that nothing is going your way. You just have to push through it, look past it, and move on. Eventually, things will go your way.
A big challenge that I had to go through was during my freshman year, while playing baseball, I dislocated my kneecap and had to sit on the bench for multiple weeks. Even though it was only freshman baseball, it was still hard to sit on the bench every day and watch the rest of my teammates play the game I love.
After the injury, I struggled batting for the next 2 seasons. Getting the thought of re-injuring myself out of my mind was hard. My swing wasn’t the same, and I couldn’t find the groove I once had. But since then, I have been able to throw that thought out of my head and work to get my swing back. This season, I feel that swing coming back to me, and in my mind, there is no thought of injuring that knee again.
All sports are mentally challenging at times, but baseball might be the most. You have to be able to reset every pitch. You are going to make errors in the field; it’s going to happen, but you can’t kick yourself about it. You need to get it out of your mind and move on, looking for the next pitch. When it comes to hitting, it can be a real mental battle.
You go 1-3 or 1-4 in a game and think that you didn’t play well, but in reality, if you go 1-3, you are hitting pretty dang good. You can’t overthink too much in baseball. When you overthink, you make more errors and mistakes that not only hurt you but also the rest of the team.
You can always be in the cages, the diamond, or in the bullpen working on whatever it is you want/need to work on. There is always room for improvement in baseball. Last year was not the best season for me and the rest of the team. We went 11-20, and it was a very long season. For the majority of the season, we played some not-so-good baseball. But towards the end of the season, we started playing better and showed some of the potential we have.
The season ended, and we all knew that we were going to have to put in the work to make sure we have a better season this year than last year. This offseason, I went to work as well as my teammates and made improvements, and it shows. We are currently 12-3 and have more wins than last year, only 1 month into the season. I will continue to work on my game and do whatever I can to help give the team the best chance to win the rest of the season.
I have been blessed with the opportunity to be coached by tremendous coaches and play with teammates with lots of talent. Both my coaches and teammates have made me a better player. I could not have gotten to the place I am today without them. I look forward to the rest of the season as the team and I continue to fight for a district championship.